Tag / 2000

by Jaime Rebanal

‘Bamboozled’ Review: A Brilliant Satire That Hits You Like a Sledgehammer

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Spike Lee’s Bamboozled left many audiences feeling befuddled when it came out, but in the years that have passed it also remains so heavily relevant, which is a sentiment that still rings true even today. Being his own riff on Sidney Lumet’s Network, an already timeless satire as is, Bamboozled exemplifies Spike at arguably his most confrontational since Do the Right Thing. Yet with that having been said, for the film’s initial release in 2000, it seemed as if audiences were not ready for what Spike Lee had opened up moviegoers to; although now seems like a perfect time to look back at what may also be Spike Lee’s most underrated film. Misunderstood upon its initial release, this is also not the first time a joint by Spike Lee has been the subject of such scrutiny, but to be able to see Bamboozled receiving the re-evaluation it deserves only feels incredibly reassuring.

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by Jaime Rebanal

The Yards Review: The Understated Richness of James Gray’s Crime Drama

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The Yards is a very personal statement from director James Gray, but it also shows where the American filmmaker’s delicate and painterly style has found itself more fully realized. It’s a personal testament for him, especially in its own setting within the train yards of New York City – but how the backdrop even plays a big factor in allowing something so grand and cathartic to come forward also says a lot for what the filmmaker can be like at his very best. This only being the American filmmaker’s sophomore film, The Yards is a very special sort of crime drama, one whose most beautiful moments have went completely understated, yet there’s always something to be drawn into. If there’s ever a more fitting description for the work of James Gray, you can already feel as if the core of what makes his films so beautiful is there, but maybe it’s not flashy – though I think they’re better off that way. And fittingly enough, I felt convinced enough that I had for the longest time been underestimating his work.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Hong Sang-soo’s Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors: A Review

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I’ve always been very unsure about how I should approach the work of Hong Sang-soo because his style is something so hard to pinpoint, but it’s one that I know I need to see more of. It’s something that I just know that I need to see more of because something about it rings a peculiar bone within my own sensibilities that isn’t so easy to point right at. In a case like Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, what we do have at hand is one of his most intriguing narrative experiments to date; because the dry nature of his work finds itself working wonders within an equally fitting style and it makes every conversation feel meaningful.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Traffic Review: Steven Soderbergh’s Finest Hour in the Mainstream

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This is arguably director Steven Soderbergh’s finest hour in Hollywood, not only because it is the film for which he had finally won a Best Director Oscar, but alongside Erin Brockovich it helped him break into the more mainstream territory. But even as we talk about how it only continues to make him one of the most fascinating filmmakers of his own kind, it’s also amazing to think about how this film does not allow confine itself to the conventions of popular cinema at the time, because it also feels like a film that breaks down against the very system which even allowed it to get made. Soderbergh, having already established a firm ground for himself starting up a new movement of independent filmmakers with sex, lies, and videotape, has also found himself stretching beyond normal once again in a film about the drug trade.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Chicken Run – Review

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Feel free to throw comments at me that go along the lines of “you never had a childhood” but I don’t care for the films of DreamWorks Animation and at the same time, Aardman’s feature films have always been so hit-and-miss with me in spite of my love for their Wallace and Gromit shorts. As a matter of fact I happen to have watched many of DreamWorks’s animated films during my younger years and while they made for fun watches amidst the time many of them have never held up well aside from a select few. Collaborating with Aardman, two of their three pairings have managed to stand out amongst their track record of mediocrity but Chicken Run isn’t one amidst that bunch as it still remains so clever and it’s still their best film by a mile.

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by Jaime Rebanal

In the Mood for Love – Review

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I remember on one lonely night I turned to watch a specific Wong Kar-wai film when I was in an incredibly sober mood. That one film I came to was In the Mood for Love, a truly entrancing experience that I still have not yet forgotten. And upon a revisit, I feel as if something really comes back and hits me once again – and suddenly I’m convinced that it’s not only one of my favourite romantic stories, but truly one of the most mesmerizing of any sort of cinematic work, a beautiful film that gives some completely different definition to the word hypnotic. Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love is, as I see it, one of the best romance films ever made and one of the best films to have come out within the 21st century. Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

Yi Yi – Review

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A few days ago, I paid a visit to my uncle’s gravesite, for he had died ten years prior on May 7. The day after I visited his grave, I decided to watch Yi Yi once more, especially with one specific scene in mind, the ending in which the young Yang-Yang speaks to his grandmother one last time at her funeral, a scene which upon my first viewing has been rooted within my head for it touched me so deeply and brought me back to my six-year-old self. I remember the moment in which before the burial of my uncle, I read a short poem summarizing all the happiness that he had brought for me, and just as I watch the stage of childhood in Yi Yi, I find myself at a closeness that I can’t describe on the spot, suddenly I realize that what I’m finding here are some of the closest connections I’ve made with the films I watch, moving me all the more – this truly is a film I adore to my heart. Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

Mission: Impossible II – Review

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Often cited as the downfall of the Mission: Impossible franchise, I’m probably amongst the few that don’t hate Mission: Impossible II as much as the general public appears to, for at least what’s offered in Mission: Impossible II feels much less restrictive compared to the overtly convoluted nature of the first film. In spite of said weaknesses in the first, Mission: Impossible II is also not a film without its own faults for while it may be a rather slight improvement from the first, there’s not enough on the inside that can create a good enough film worthy of a recommendation. Continue reading →